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Wednesday, 13 February 2013

So just why did Super Robot Chogokin Gurren Lagann come with
barely any drills? The answer for that is simple – why bundle them in with the
figure itself when an accessory pack can be made out of it! Released the same
time as the main SRC figure was the appropriately named “Drill Set of
Manliness” accessory set, which not only features Giga Drill parts but also
pieces to recreate Gurren Lagann in "fully drillized" mode.

You know an accessory pack means business when the box is
the size of a Super Robot Chogokin figure itself (albeit much lighter though). The
front features Gurren Lagann in his iconic "Giga Drill Break" pose, showing off
pretty much all the accessories this set has to offer. Strangely, the English
name for the set isn't included on the front, instead on the back in smaller
text along with some smaller image of the set being used with the figure
itself. Open the box up and you have probably the most extensive and neatest
arrangement of plastic drill pieces you'll ever see.

So how many drills are there in the Drill Set of Manliness? Included are 28 smaller drills that can be plugged into each hole on Gurren
Lagann's body (with two spare ones left over, featuring slightly different peg
pieces like the ones included with the main figure), a large drill piece, a
spinning drill effect piece, an alternate head crest and another Tamashii stage
port.

Changing the head crest is easy enough, but adding the small
drills to all the available ports is a much more fiddly affair. Once they're
properly fitted into the ports they’ll stay there snugly, but until then expect
a fair bit of frustration and they drop off as you try to put every one on the
figure. The other thing to be careful about is just HOW you place them in, as
they are made of soft plastic and will bend if you hold them by the tips as you
force them in. Once you've managed to place them all in, you’ll have a pretty
imposing Gurren Lagann on your hands. Poseability isn't hindered by them at all
(although the arms can’t really sit parallel to the waist anymore), but make
sure to handle to the figure in surface areas with minimal drills to prevent
more droppage.

The larger drill is considerably smaller than the one
included with the Ver. KA figure, so it's debatable whether you want to call it
a "Giga Drill" or not. Regardless, I’ll be calling it that for the sake of
clarity in this review. It plugs into the arm like a normal hand, and due to
the figure's weight it can hold the drill upright pretty stably, although
posing it thrust forward would obviously require an additional stand. The
spinning effect piece slots directly over the drill itself, and then you turn
it to lock it into place.

Adding this piece adds a fair bit of weight to the drill,
and this is where the figure begins to struggle holding it by itself. Upright "Pierce the Heavens" poses are possible with some careful balancing, but
anything else is pretty much impossible even with the support of the other arm.
Which brings me to my biggest gripe about this set – why not include a stand?
For 2730 yen (although admittedly many online retailers are selling it for
cheaper than RRP) a bunch of small drills and two larger pieces is rather
meagre...especially when the larger pieces are somewhat dependant on a stand.
It wouldn't have been too much effort to include one (I'm not even asking for a
Gurren Lagann specific one, though that would have been nice) and lesser
deserving Bandai figures have had them before...so why not here? The set is
good, but when you get to playing around with the larger drill pieces this is a
really noticeable flaw.

Would I recommend this set? The answer really depends on how
much you like Gurren Lagann. It's not a perfect set by any means and the lack
of stand does bring it down a notch, but at the same time it's a relatively
inexpensive addition that adds a lot more play/display value to SRC Gurren
Lagann. It's one of the few pre-built figures (and the only one of its scale)
that has a customisable "fully drillized" mode, and even when you factor this
in with it the Super Robot Chogokin is still significantly cheaper than the Riobot. If you're looking for a toy engineering
marvel, buy the Riobot. However if you're looking for a fun toy to mess around
with, pick up the Super Robot Chogokin and give this accessory set a good think
about too.